1. Field of the Invention
The preferred embodiments of the present invention are directed to providing secure, non-repudiatable access to digital information. More particularly, the preferred embodiments are directed to providing access tracking for single frame and video images through the use of embedded biometric information in combination with public key enciphering techniques.
2. Background of the Invention
Society is growing more toward the use of digital information. As society becomes more reliant on digital information, it becomes increasingly important to be able to secure access to digital information, as well as track who has had access to the information. A specific example of such digital information is health care records regarding a particular patient. In the related art, access to health care information that is digitally maintained is typically controlled, and tracked, by the use of a user identification and password system. If a doctor wishes to, for example, review a patient's information, the doctor logs on to an informational source using his or her user identification and password. However, control over a user identification and password is easily lost, thus giving unscrupulous people the ability to obtain access to sensitive information, with relatively no way to track the access. Moreover, in the related art the user identification and password technique may only operate on a per-record basis. That is, the audit trails created by logging in using a user identification and password may only indicate that access to an entire file was granted, not that a user was granted access to any particular piece of information within that file, or to the extent the record was reviewed.
In the health care industry domain, new federal requirements, such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), require access controls and audit trails with regard to the personal and sensitive health care information of an individual, and the controls required are greater than those offered in the related art techniques. The same type precautions mandated by HIPAA find application in other situations, such as tracking a “leak” of classified material. Further, being able to track, from individual to individual, access to a particular piece of digital information may find applicability in the copyright realm, especially with regard to illegal distribution of digitally stored music. The user identification and password paradigm simply does not provide the necessary access control and access tracking now required in many industries.
Thus, what is needed in the art is a way to provide secure, non-repudiatable access and tracking controls for digital information for digital files, single frame images, video images, and the like.